Benedict and Vincent

she also links to a summary of StVincent De Paul's life which I won't link to. Why? Because it was superficial...it even ignored his time as a galley slave. so read THIS insteador this at Wikipedia:

Only in the Late Middle Ages did slaves begin to be increasingly employed as rowers. It also become the custom among the Mediterranean powers to sentence condemned criminals to row in the war-galleys of the state (initially only in time of war). Traces of this practice appear in France as early as 1532, but the first legislative enactment comes in the Ordonnance d'Orléans of 1561. In 1564 Charles IX of France forbade the sentencing of prisoners to the galleys for fewer than ten years. A brand of the letters GAL identified the condemned galley-slaves.

Naval forces from both Christian and Muslim countries often turned prisoners of war into galley-slaves. Thus, at the battle of Lepanto in 1571, 12,000 Christian galley slaves were freed from the Ottoman Turks.

In 1622, Saint Vincent de Paul, as a former slave himself (in Tunis), became chaplain to the galleys, and ministered to the galley slaves.

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Follow the money

The Legionaires of Christ scandal finally hit the fan but for some reason the press hasn't covered it very well.

Now Catholics on line has a money trail connecting the institution with some rich Mexican families.

One of the problems with catching a sociopath like Mariel was that John Paul II was skeptical about the gossip, probably because the communists would "frame" troublemaking priests this way to get rid of church influence and justify their persecution of religion. (and not just Catholic priests, of course, also Orthodox clergy and Tibetan monks).

Naive? Possibly...it is unbelievable to Catholic parents that so many bishops followed the "compassionate" treatment of pedophiles instead of removing them (yet I remember when Newsweek insisted we shouldn't jail incestuous fathers because it would destroy the family, and we in the medical profession were told not to make a big thing of incest or child sexual abuse because the court case would upset the child more than the actual abuse. Alas, this is true, but this meant a lot of pedophiles got off after a slap on the wrist to protect the child from testifying and being humiliated by cross examination in public).ca

The dirty little secret is that there is a fine line between brainwashing of cults and the training of traditional religious orders. The "work" of the group seems good, but I remember talking to some women who were associates, and they had the blank stare I had seen in Hari Krishnas and one of my friends who joined a guru's Hindu group. Not a good sign.

Yet one rarely saw the blank stare in the sisters of the good old days, so there is a difference. Maybe the stress on inner conversion, maybe the voluntary nature, and maybe because most convents etc. had wise novice mistresses. The way I understood it was that in the novice year, they were stressed into holiness, but in the next year they were brought down to earth and made to integrate their religion into practical matters.

And this report on how the church mishandles money surprises no one: LINK

the problem is that if you want to run institutions, churches, orphanages etc. you have to be involved in money, and there are those who will take kickbacks, siphon off money, or even divert huge amounts from the church, and often it is because the bishops are too naive to realize it.

Heck, even Jesus was bilked by Judas who asked for kickbacks from those who wanted to see Jesus, and siphoned off some of the donations into his own pocket.

musings on feminism.

Hirsi Ali says she fights the strict Islam of her homeland, Somalia, along with the genital mutilation (that predates Islam and ignores that the prophet advised only to cut "a little", and opposed the version done in Somalia and Egypt).

It is wrong because many converted to the Sufi form of Islam. It is right because the Saudis are using oil money to spread their "pure" version of Islam to all those who are easy going, and the Saudi form IS rabidly against others. I mean, a million Catholic OFW's live in Saudi, and no church is allowed.

Similarly, Ali's embracing of the free love of modern Europe is a rebellion against the lack of power in marriage where men rule and marriages are arranged. She says it ignores that women too have a need for sexual expression. What she overlooks is the exploitation of women by men who take advantage of it.

One must of course be happy that Wollstonecraft, when made pregnant by the free love philosopher Godwin, actually got married, and didn't do as women do nowadays. Why? Because although she died in childbirth, her child, Mary, wrote Frankenstein...one feminist evaluates the novel (not the movie) as being a criticism of men trying to give birth, and one Catholic literary critic sees the theme is that of men who refuse their ties to humanity in order to persue a greater good, and who wreck the lives of those around them. (in the novel, Frankenstein knows his monster killed someone, but keeps quiet and so the maid is executed for the death). It also has a strong theme of the monster who wishes a wife and family, yet is a monster and unloved even by his creator.

Saint Catherine of Genoa (Caterina Fieschi Adorno, born Genoa 1447 – 15 September 1510) is an Italian Roman Catholic saint and mystic, admired for her work among the sick and the poor. She was a member of the noble Fieschi family, and spent most of her life and her means serving the sick, especially during the plague which ravaged Genoa in 1497 and 1501. She died in that city in 1510.

her approach to reform the church was to form small prayer groups to encourage holiness, an idea that inspired many Catholic sodalities and of course the smaller Protestant independent churches.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Poem of the man god

the site has a lot more stuff, including this series on the centering prayer. this one is based on Carmelite spirituality not on the new age version.

The discipline is similar to "self hypnosis" or "Deep concentration"...if you concentrate on yourself you will find self. If you do it to get power over yourself or others, you will find that too along with the evil you are not seeking, but if you seek God, he will be there

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Benedict at Regensburg

Philippine stuff

In 1948, devotees believed, the holy Virgin Mother appeared to a postulant on several occasions in the grounds of the monastery, founded only two years earlier. The Lipa Carmel was the site of a series massacre of Batanguenos at the closing days of World War II. Said to be the scene of an awful tragedy the place was transformed into what they described as “oasis of prayer.”

It will be recalled that on April 11, 1951, six Filipino bishops declare there was nothing supernatural in the reported apparitions and shower of petals in the Carmelite Monastery of Lipa.

The signature of the Apostolic delegate, later the first Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines, Archbishop Egidio Vagnozzi, stamped the document with the official position of the Holy See on the Lipa phenomenon.

A follow-up document signed by the apostolic administrator after the resignation of the diocesan bishop that time, Most Rev. Alfredo Versoza, and transfer as Lucena Diocesan administrator for 22 years of Bishop Alfredo Ma. Obviar, Bishop Rufino Santos, who later became the country’s first cardinal, forbade among others the veneration of the image of Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace and the distribution of petals and holy water bottles.

I first heard about the vision, not from my Pinoy relatives, but from a Spanish exchange student living with us in the US...who told the story from his Uncle, a bigshot Jesuit...that the bishop thought it was true, but at that time the Vatican didn't like visions so the Nuncio arranged to have it officially rejected, and ordered the local bishops to go along with their decision.

But some pinoys think her rejection was because they asked her what she would do if she wanted to marry and her boyfriend insisted she change religions, and she said she'd go along with God and not marry him.

She was asked by Vivica Fox if she would change her religion or religious views if it is because she would marry the man she loves. And this was her answer:

"If I would have to change my religious beliefs, I would not marry the person that I love. Because the first person that I love is God, who created me."I have my faith and my principles, and this is what makes me who I am. If the person loves me, he'll love my God too."

Maybe this answer cost her opportunity for the crown. Some even say that the competition is biased or "lutong labanan"

Patients, too, often have difficulty telling a physician they have an authentic wish to die. Physicians, for their part, are under an obligation to take such requests seriously. This also means that if a physician cannot or does not wish to honour a patient’s request for euthanasia or assisted suicide he must give the patient a timely and clear explanation of why, and furthermore must then refer or transfer the patient to another physician in good time. Vague promises, failure to transfer patients during absences, causing delays or indicating at a late stage or too late that the physician has reconsidered his decision to perform the euthanasia all demonstrate a lack of professionalism. The KNMG therefore calls on all physicians to act as they would wish themselves or their loved ones to be treated.

---------------------------------for years I wrote futile letters to the editor prophecizing and objecting to those pushing these things quietly in medical journals...I knew most docs didn't read the article or ignored the trends.

But of course, medical schools were indoctrinating the students with the ideology, and the increase in women students (who often came from upper middle class pro abortion liberal homes) will make it easier to push these ideas.

I was lower class in medical school, and stubborn enough not to "go along" with the pro abortion issues, but I saw how most of my classmates "changed their minds" under pressure. So I am not optimistic.

Maybe I'll just stay here in the Philippines where I only have to worry about earthquakes, floods, typhoons, and Dengue fever...

Friday, September 09, 2011

follow the money

Heh....The communist gov't of what was then Yugoslavia harassed, wiretapped, and made up disinformation on the "apparition" of Mary in Medjugorje...and the bishop, believing the false documents, became one of the strongest critics of the shrine.background HERE.

------------------------your tax dollars at work:Obama okays US govt money to IPPF, and then the IPPF gives over half a million dollarsto a Philippine NGO. to promote the "RH BILL"...

Presumably like Joe Biden, they'd be happy if we imitated China and let IPPF help us pay for forced abortions and a two child policy.

Santa Muerte shrines have increasingly been found among gang related businesses such as drug trafficking and prostitution rings, especially businesses run by MS-13,the Latin Kings, and the 18th Street gang. The shrines are used both to supernaturally aid the worshipers and to terrorize the communities they are in.

In one such case, Jorge Flores Rojas, a sex trafficker operating in Charlotte, North Carolina, used the goddess to scare his victims into submission. After kidnapping the daughter of an acquaintance and raping the girl repeatedly, Flores forced the girl in front of one of his Santa Muerte shrines. There he took her underwear, stuffed them in an offering container, and told the girl should she try to escape the saint would punish her. In this way he kept the teenager in line while he sold her to dozens of men, until she was rescued by police.

There is also evidence of human sacrifices to Santa Muerte happening on American soil. In Chandler, Arizona, three illegal immigrants from Mexico stabbed to death and beheaded a fourth acquaintance in a brutal killing that baffled police. Neighbors reported seeing the men using Ouija boards and burning candles in some sort of rituals.

But Santa Muerte is not just worshiped by Mexican immigrants. The cult has made inroads into western occultism as evidenced by businesses aimed at Wiccans and other neo-Pagan groups offering ritual items useful only to the Santa Muerte cultist. In addition to candles, incense, and other altar items, the only known grimoire for the cult — Juan Ambrosio’s La Santa Muerte Biografía y Culto: Ventiséis rituales personales para conseguir salud, dinero y amor – is now carried by many occult supply shops though it seems to have not yet been translated into English.

That may explain another human sacrifice in the southwest, this time in New Mexico. A self-described Wiccan named Angela Sanford stabbed 52-year-old Joel Leyba to death on the Vernal Equinox, a magically and religiously significant day in many occult traditions.

Prayers are needed.

Here in the Philippines, the danger is here also, since the drug gangs have increased, while protestants alas too often convert by twisting scripture to bash catholics, and the elites tend to be into New Age variations of ancient chinese customs that may or may not be compatible with Christianty (the bishops once okayed feng shui for designs, but one Christian noted that "they are all Chinese"...presumably they don't see it as being against God but being in harmony with nature).

Nevertheless, the "prosperity" type preachers and new age "the Secret" and "success" type Christianity is popular in the papers.

In some ways, I worry less about the paganism of the fiestas, which are innocent and "baptised" to emphsize their good points, and aims at reminding us of God, not the gods.

But as the Mexican problem shows, once you weaken the church, the demons rise again.

Of course, the same problem is found in Europe/US, but killing off grandmom because you can't be bothered to care for her, or aborting your baby to take a trip to Paris (or as one teenager did here, to enter a beauty contest) is not the same thing according to our elightened class.